The invention relates to a device for separation of the constituents of all fluids, that is to say both liquids and gases, which device operates by a physicochemical route.
In the continuation of the description and in the claims, the term "separation" should be understood in its widest sense, that is to say filtration proper, but also the retention of particles, of charges, of microparticles, of ions of dissolved species, ionic or otherwise, separation or immobilization. These different actions are capable of resulting in the concentration, refining or purification of the fluid subjected to these actions. The invention also relates to the functionalization of the medium during the separation, the stage preliminary to subsequent diagnostic or working operations of the functionalized support.
Separation is carried out in a great many fields for diverse and varied applications. Thus, in the very general fields of chemistry and biology, it frequently proves necessary to carry out phase concentrations, separations or purifications in the context of analysis and in industrial processes.
To do this, recourse is commonly had either to conventional filters (disc filters, plate filters, filter presses, precoat filters), which require significant filtration equipment, or to filter cartridges, which require heavy molds for their manufacture. In both cases, consequent ullages are generated and, moreover, such filters exhibit a partition coefficient which is most often unsatisfactory or limited.
For other applications, recourse is had, for the separation of ionic species, to ion exchange resins. Such resins are, in a known way, composed of beads and microbeads functionalized according to the type of exchange desired.
Whatever the process of separation employed and its corollary, the equipment which enables this separation to be carried out, a certain number of problems remain, including the ullages generated by the equipment as well as its bulk, indeed its weight also, and its investment.
Applications increasingly demand, in order to carry out a direct measurement, a separation process capable of being carried out in line without an intermediate stage of collection of the fluid to be analyzed.
Moreover, the search is increasingly to increase the kinetics of separation, without, for all that, detrimentally affecting the results of this separation.